If you follow Ellen's With My Needle blog you know that she has finished 'I Sigh Not for Beauty'.  She's an incredibly quick stitcher.  We had a guild stitch in, in late March and four of us were stitching on it.  Starting at the top right is Ellen's.  Under hers is Marsha G.'s and to the left is Lisa P.'s and on the top left is mine.  They all have a slightly different look on the different linens and with the different threads.  I like them all and hope we get to see them all completed by the end of the year.  I am going to try and get mine done but I have a big surprise in my next blog post which will explain why I may not finish it.

I didn't want my secret stitcher to think I didn't appreciate what she sent to me in March.  I LOVE everything.  The magazine has the American Sampler in it.  After seeing Christy Y. stitching on it, it may have a future in my stash - in a few year's time.  I haven't stitched a queen stitch yet and that is loaded with them so it'll have to wait until I get comfortable with them.  But the magazine has all kinds of friendly charts.  The silk is a beautiful shade of green and the St. Patrick's bird will be a nice fast stitch.  The package of floss bags were immediately opened and put to use and the card is adorable.  I have a wonderful secret stitcher.

This past week has been incredibly busy, in a good way.  I started Wed. by going to see the play 'Gee's Bend' at the Playhouse in the Park.  It was a very good production and had to do with a small town in Alabama, civil rights, changing of women's roles and quilts.  I went with a couple of friends which made it even better.  Friday I went to the International Quilt Show downtown also.  It was incredible.  I met two of the friends that went to the play and we perused a couple of the actual quilt displays and then started in on the vendors.  We didn't get far and broke for lunch.  Then it was back to vendors for me and my friends started another display.  They are awesome quilters and have made quite a few.  I had little time to spare 'cause I had an appointment in Columbus to see somebody very important.  If the show is here again next year I will get a couple day pass.  I only got to see about a third of it.  As another friend said - sensory overload - in a good way.

One of the vendors was my friend Barb Hils from Keepsakes Framing and Stitching my local LNS.  I hope she did well and survived the show and tour groups to her store.  It was a long weekend for her.  This is Barb and a couple of pictures from her store - the 1st floor.  She holds a stitch in the first Friday of the month.

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Saturday I drove to Cedarville, Ohio for the annual Ohio Soapmakers and Candlemakers gathering.  This was its 13th year.  It's fun to get together with old friends and catch up with each other.  I only soap now for myself and friends and family but every year I learn new tricks and something interesting.  I entered a swap and that's always fun to get new products, soaps and fun things to try.

Sunday started early with another drive to Columbus to pick up someone.  I'll reveal that in my next post.  They are sleeping next to me now but all bets are off when they wake up.  Are you curios yet?



Marsha